Injecting air?

TCU Reefer

Premium Member
Anybody else inject air into their SPS system like TOTM Weatherson does?

I tried it yesterday while doing a water change by spraying the newly mixed water back into the system. My corals slimed up immediately and after blowing the slime away with a baster, they looked really great.

Anybody else do this on a regular basis?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12373840#post12373840 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Denadai
I think this is useless

I just don't see the benefits either, nothing that a good old WC can't take care of
 
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it seems to me like forcing the corals to slime all the time would be a drain on the corals. They have to divert more energy to making more slime than they would for life functions and growth. But that's just my opinion and I don't know for certain
 
I thought it was a good idea myself. In nature, they slime over when exposed to air during low tide. Some corals do this every day, so I wouldn't think that it is necessarily over done. Unless the corals were exposed during a WC, I wouldn't imagine you would get the same results. As always, just my thoughts. :)

As a side note, I have a particular rock that I've been experimenting with. It has a green cap, blue tort, and pink mill; I wanted to have multiple corals to see the effect with different species. Anyway, I leave it out for half an hour about once a week just to see if it does bring out the color. I've notice that they all seem to glow; although, they are particularly vibrant corals. I've been curious to try the air injection, but I think it's a bit complicated for my simple system.
 
You mean I've been doing the wrong thing all these years by keeping micro-bubble from my main tank? LOL...If you want air in your display, it's real easy. Everyone's got a skimmer that they can let loose.
 
I think the idea is pretty worthless too. Someone in my local reef club forum started the same discussion because of the TOTM. Bubbles in the main tank only cause bad things for me. One might argue that the crest of the reef gets lots of bubbles from wave action, but then I would argue how many species are actually growing on the crest vs. the rest of the reef? For some species it might be beneficial, but I would say they are the minority.

And I also don't see how sliming of corals from bubble action is a good thing. I veiw that as a sign of stress. A guy in the other thread put it this way: "That's like putting sand in your eyes to make them water." Makes sense to me, I'm not doing it.
 
I do this about once a week without meaning to. Either I bump the skimmer while doing a water change or I'll forget to fill the auto top off. :lol:
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12380496#post12380496 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by volcom69
Would it somehow rid the corals of bugs at all when doing this.

highly unlikely
 
I tried this today... I used the turkey baster to inject air into one of my Tunze streams and let the display swirl with bubbles. Believe it or not, in about 5 minutes after the bubbles are gone the whole display is crystal clear! Like all the particles floating around are gone... go figure! It's like a substitute for those water clearing chemicals (Pro Clear?)
 
Gas exchange , in any form, is probably not bad for the inhabitants. Especially if it stimulates skimming.

Just another way to do it.
 
Yeh, just turkeybaster some air into a powerhead when you feeding if you want to try this out.

I personally would not have it automated. Just another thing to go wrong IMO. Some people listed drawbacks above...

I am a big fan of KISS.
 
... on the bad side, the several hundred thousands of microbubbles popping at the same time created tons of salt spots on my halides' UV glass shield..... not good.
 
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